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There was a period in America, when the economy managed to briefly serve both the business sector and the working class. Although it wasn't flawless, there existed a degree of balance in the economy, particularly when compared to the present situation. From the 1950s to the 1970s, CEOs earned approximately 20 times more than their lowest-paid employees. At a young age, the baby boomer generation, who participated both as employees and business owners, accumulated around 60 percent of the wealth in America at this time. (Hess, 2021)
Nowadays, your average CEO makes 300 times more than their bottom-end employee. The majority of millennials are now reaching their thirties, and they only own 5 percent of the economy. What the hell happened? (Adamczyk, 2020)
One answer could be the fact that the older generation has had unlimited, unchecked voting power most of their lives, and by being America’s largest generation, they have consistently dominated. When they were younger, the boomers voted for a center-left-wing economy to serve their needs. Some left-wing policies had already been voted in by the Silent and Greatest Generation. These policies included high taxes for the rich, worker pensions, unions, the 40-hour work week, etc. Eventually, most of these policies and ideas were scrapped.
When people first start life as young adults, money is harder to come by usually. We all know this fact. This is one of the main reasons younger people tend to vote left-wing. It’s not that people who vote more liberal have a bleeding heart necessarily, while the conservative voters are wiser. (I swear, whoever came up with that biased quote needs to be slapped.) Voting behavior is mostly derived from socioeconomic concerns. As the years went on, the economy continued to serve mostly the older generational needs. As a person ages in America, that individual, on average, has more to lose. Wealth is accumulated and is usually invested.
In the early 1980s, Ronald Reagan won the presidential election. At this point, that once-broke boomer now had some leverage in society. With the economy still going pretty strong after World War II, they accumulated some wealth working regular jobs and being mediocre in business. As their wealth began to change, their attitudes toward economic politics began to change, also. The boomer generation began to vote for a hyper-capitalist economy to protect their assets, leaving future generations to fight for scraps. Reagan rolled back regulations, disassembled unions, and allowed corporate stock buybacks. This now was the era of neoliberalism. Sure, not every baby boomer in that generation benefited from these changes, but the wealthiest sure did. And this is why America is the most unequal country in the first world today.
Maybe some of these policies made sense during these times, but slamming the head of the economy into an economic-fascist wall for decades may cause brain damage. And it has. It’s even the type of brain damage that cannot be reversed.
The truth is, that this amount of wealth inequality only leads to destabilization and more crime. The Economist, a very popular capitalist magazine, even admits this fact about this level of inequality (2018). It’s been a long time since America struggled like this and the leaders still actively choose to play with fire.
A counter-argument to this point is that eventually, the power will be passed down. The issue with that argument is that the older generations are living longer than ever. Trust me when I say I’m glad people are living longer today and I am thankful for the accomplishments in medical science. That being said, this means we will be seeing 90-year-old politicians soon. How in the hell is that healthy for society?
Another issue with waiting is that wealth is now heavily concentrated at the moment. The top 10 percent of America owns just about 90 percent of its wealth. The top 1 percent owns a little over 50 percent of the wealth (Hess, 2021). The longer the government waits to tax them, the less likely there will ever be a resolution to this problem. That is absolutely insane and it will continue to get worse.
Unless some sort of tax is implemented, the wealth of the United States will be so distorted that the country will not survive. The wealthy will own every aspect of America leaving everyone else to fight for the crumbs. Climbing the socio-economic ladder will be a thing of the past and indentured servitude will once again be commonplace. I can already see a LinkedIn writer giving it a politically correct name that's trendy, like "involuntary apprenticeships."
But then again, If only you made better decisions in life like randomly investing in Bitcoin, then maybe you wouldn’t be struggling. Loser. Please take personal responsibility and get back to work!
Does this mean the boomers are evil? Should we cast out their demons while self-righteously telling them we are better? No. Exorcisms are not cool anymore anyways. I do have to admit, millennials are too self-righteous sometimes. Actively being annoying and thinking we are morally superior, is kind of our thing. I don’t want to encourage more of that behavior. Thank you. They are not evil. Like all beings, we are all just trying to survive. Even that greedy, coke-binging, CEO that hoards money using his offshore bank accounts is somewhat redeemable.. meh… Maybe.
Can we blame them for taking advantage of a broken system in the first place? Well, maybe you can a little. However, the only real path to a solution is for society to finally see that this system is the primary problem. The perpetual term restrictions, all the money in politics, the exorbitant military spending, and extreme income disparity are unquestionably at the top of the list of issues confronting America.
With that in mind, I would argue that all of these problems cannot be fixed until generational tyranny stops. The elderly ruling over the young could be what is suffocating America. Even if it’s unintentional, elderly politicians have been amazingly selfish and need to retire from politics. I apologize in advance for being condescending but being introspective is a skill that the older generation should probably learn.
Thomas Jefferson once wrote to Madison, “The question whether one generation of men has a right to bind another, seems never to have been started either on this or our side of the water. Yet it is a question of such consequences as not only to merit decision but the place also, among the fundamental principles of every government (Jefferson, 1789).”
Even Jefferson knew that this would be a problem due to human nature. He even suggested that Americans write a new constitution every generation or every 19 years to prevent generational tyranny. He knew that generational problems would be vastly different from one another and that power could be unfairly concentrated.
What is the solution? Can we really trust the millennial generation with power? Well, seeing that millennials and Gen Zers are very mentally unstable, I would say no. That being said, the torch will have to be passed down sometime. This is just prolonging the inevitable. And by waiting, they are only making it more difficult for the younger generations to flourish in modern America.
At the end of it all, individuals should not be harassed or individually picked out. Hopefully, reasoning with one or two of them can still work. As for the power-hungry, decrepit, politicians; they may need to be dealt with in other ways.
With all the corruption in politics, the number of uneducated Americans, and the lack of market regulation, we are heading toward disaster. Changing the system is necessary if we want the country to survive. At this point, we would probably all agree that crackheads could run this country better. But then again, that is most likely already happening.
SOURCES:
https://jeffersonpapers.princeton.edu/selected-documents/thomas-jefferson-james-madison
https://href.li/?https://www.cnbc.com/amp/2020/10/09/millennials-own-less-than-5percent-of-all-us-wealth.html
https://www.cnbc.com/amp/2021/09/15/in-2020-top-ceos-earned-351-times-more-than-the-typical-worker.html
https://www.economist.com/graphic-detail/2018/06/07/the-stark-relationship-between-income-inequality-and-crime